Where do libertarians stand on net neutrality?
As Wired, 鈥淭he House of Representatives voted Friday to overturn net neutrality rules created by the FCC in December.鈥� Obama said he will veto it.
Net Neutrality is complicated. It鈥檚 hard for some libertarians to figure out where to stand on it.
Here鈥檚 how I view it:
- It鈥檚 bad that the state helps cartelize industry.
- It鈥檚 bad that ISPs etc. probably have more market power than they otherwise would, and that there is less competition than there would be.
- But this is the state鈥檚 fault.
- Given it鈥檚 the state鈥檚 fault, should the state use its antitrust power/FTC power to block mergers or to break companies apart? I say no. You can鈥檛 trust the state that caused the problem in the first place to solve it by exercising unlibertarian and unconstitutional power and law.
- Given the current regime of state-intervention-caused limited competition, should the FCC impose Net Neutrality rules? I say no.
- Given that the FCC did impose Net Neutrality rules, should Congress override them? I say a tepid yes.
- Given that Congress did the right thing, should Obama veto it? No.
- Will he anyway? Yes.
- Are we doomed? Yes. (Kidding. I hope.)
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